Influence of Interfacial Oxide on Self-Alignment Silicide Process

[[abstract]]The microstructure of titanium silicide is affected by the presence of an interfacial oxide (SiOx) layer on silicon prior to sputtering deposition of titanium film. The microstructure is investigated by transmission electron microscopic (TEM) and scanning electron microscopic (SEM), the texture is determined from X-ray pole figures and resistivity is determined by four point probe measurement. It is discovered that the silicide film becomes discontinuous if the oxide layer (SiOx) is thicker than 3.4 nm and the film is highly resistive. If the oxide layer is thinner than 1.7 nm, the resistivity is not affected because the interfacial oxygen atoms are presumably snowplowed to the surface. The grains of discontinuous silicide exhibit a weak epitaxial relationship with Si(001).[[fileno]]202033501001